GUNDAM SEED: Astray Vs X
by Skull-16
Summary: Set after the ends of TF:Cybertron and SEED VS Astray, when the planet leaders take the Atlantis, Hyperbola, Lemuria, and Ogygia starships with the Cyber planet keys. I own nothing unless specified. Astray Centric. Undergoing severe modification.
1. Chapter 1

Episode 1: Regenesis

Outside the ruins of Heliopolis, several junk guild ships were scrounging around the colony for parts or materials, which might be sellable. At the southern tip of the colony, an old, outdated Lesseps class carrier ship, refitted with cranes and rigs as a junk guild ship, was combing through the small field of asteroids. What was notable about this ship was the fact that there were no less than three Mobile Suits working around it. While the other ships cannibalising the colony used mass-produced, and in many places customized, Chimera mobile armours, this ship had an entire, fully operational GINN Mobile Suit (albeit one modified and stripped of excess armour), a BUCUE, with a strange jet pack salvaged from discarded ZAFT flight packs, resting on the rear deck beside the crane and most conspicuously of all, a red and white ASTRAY model GUNDAM standing on the front right platform of the ship beside a heavy ordinance crane.

"_Remind me why we're just roaming the debris belt when there's a shitload of booty _inside_ the actual colony?"_ the cocky, bored voice from Red Frame's natural pilot broke the radio silence between the ship and the three Mobile Suits.

"Lowe's right." the female pilot of the BUCUE said. "Heliopolis hasn't been completely dismantled. There's got to be a lot of valuable tech and stuff in the labs and hangers." _Not to mention it's safer in there too._

"_Hold on Lowe, Kisato."_ the only person in the ship it self spoke up, a thirty-something natural who insisted everyone just call her 'the Professor'. "There could very easily be some more secret factories concealed in the colony's base too."

Lowe sighed from the cockpit of Red Frame. He turned his GUNDAM back around to the GINN standing on the central deck just below the bridge. "What do you think Liam?" he asked.

The GINN shifted so that its single red eye looked up at Red Frame. _"I think you, Kisato and the Professor have pointed arguments on both counts, but in this case I think we should at least explore the asteroid."_ The voice of Liam, the only coordinator of the group, drifted out of the speakers of the other two Mobile Suits and the ship's bridge. "If we do happen across a secret warehouse or something similar, then we'll be the only ones there to plunder it. And then we could round up a bit extra inside the colony."

"Whatever." Lowe grumbled.

Kisato just slumped in her pilot seat and folded her arms disappointedly.

"_Kisato,"_ the Professor radioed in, _"can you scout ahead on the asteroid surface to find the nearest hanger door?"_

"Sure thing ma'am." the young, blonde natural started booting up her MS's motion systems, the thought of a job seeming to motivate her. The quadruped Mobile Suit leapt off the ship and drifted down to the surface of the asteroid, using the jet pack to slow it's decent. "Lowe, this pack may be ugly, but it works beautifully!"

"_Of course. You expected anything else?"_ Red Frame's pilot answered.

Kisato smiled at Lowe's reply. The guy was cute, but she thought she could never adjust to his thrill-seeking persona. Kisato's MS hit the ground and she immediately powered forward, using the topside jets of her pack and the BUCUE's high-speed crawler treads on its feet to overtake the ship high above her. The suit's engines rumbled through Kisato's insulated cockpit as the BUCUE sped ahead over a slanted rock formation. The MS flew out over empty space, the great maw of an open hanger below it. "Well, I guess we found our entrance." Kisato said weakly.

"_Nicely done Kisato,"_ the Professor said. _"Now move your ass back to the edge of the hanger and wait for Lowe and Liam to join you."_

"Right." replied Kisato. She rotated her central thrusters and ignited them, too fast and too hard. Kisato screamed as her BUCUE spun laterally and rocketed, upside down, into the hanger. "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! HELP MEEEEEEEEEE!"

"_Kisato! Shut off your right side jet and fire it again!" _Liam called in through the BUCUE's radio. Kisato did as she was told, but the MS clipped the corner of a wall as it spun around again and sent the BUCUE flying across the hanger where it hit a disused shuttle clamp and collapsed to the floor. Inside the cockpit, Kisato's world was chaotically thrown around so when her MS collided with the shuttle clamp, Kisato was hurled against the exit hatch above her and everything suddenly went black for her.


	2. Chapter 2

Episode 2: surprise

"_Kisato? Kisato are you still alive down there? Helloooooo!"_ Lowe's voice poked its way into Kisato's barely conscious brain. She only barely recognized Red Frame's pilot before she registered the throbbing on the top of her head. She resisted the urge to feel the lump that was forming.

Kisato groaned as she peeled herself off the monitors, forced herself back into her seat and tried to shake off the grogginess. "L…Lowe? What's going on?" she asked woozily.

"_Great, you're okay. As for what's going on, you totalled that flight pack and wrecked that hanger, and I don't want to guess how damaged your BUCUE is."_

The realisation of what a damaged Mobile Suit meant for the pilot hit Kisato and she immediately tried to make her BUCUE stand up. She got no response from the flight pack or the left side legs and the motor controls in the right legs were mutilated beyond use.

"_Ah, shit." _Lowe said when Kisato told him about the extent of the damages. _"At least your cockpit wasn't compromised. Just sit tight. I'll get Red Frame's boarding tube and be with you ASAP."_

It took less than five minutes for Red Frame to retrieve Kisato from her downed MS and just 20 more minutes for Liam in his GINN and the Lesseps to descend into the hanger. The two remaining Mobile Suits started working on dismantling the BUCUE and taking the pieces back into the ship's hold. Sitting behind Lowe inside Red Frame's cockpit, watching her precious BUCUE being dismembered by her friends just depressed Kisato. "I've had that MS for almost four years now. Now it's only good for a smelting furnace." She moaned.

"Don't fuss over it kiddo." Lowe said over his shoulder. "The next complete Mobile Suit we find is yours by right. I'll even help you write the OS to suit you."

Kisato immediately perked up. "Thanks Lowe."

"Lowe, Liam can handle the rest of the BUCUE. I want you and Kisato to scout around the area and find anything of value before we begin salvaging the colony."

"Yes ma'am." Red Frame was already taking off and soaring down the nearest corridor before Lowe radioed his reply.

* * *

Mobile Suit sized bulkheads passed by until Kisato pointed one out that was partly open. Lowe had Red Frame open the doors enough to slip inside. By the light of Red Frame's optics, neither Kisato nor Lowe could make much detail out anything larger than a Mobile Suit. This was ironic because that was all this room contained: one purple and black MS, which could be best described as a hybrid between an ORB Astray and a ZAFT forces DINN. The head, which looked more at home on a ZAFT Mobile Suit, combined the 'wide-helmet' design, which was typical of ZAFT products, and the visored 'GUNDAM' look of the Astrays to produce an impression of a medieval knight with the ZAFT head acting as a helmet of sorts for the ORB one. It all looked very impressive with the six 'feather' wings spanning out from the back and the twin beam rifles, sabres and anti-beam shields resting on the hips, waist and forearms respectively.

"Wow!" was Kisato's reaction.

"As promised Kisato, here is your new Mobile Suit." Lowe announced with the air of a presenter on a quiz show.

Kisato just gazed at the MS – her MS – in awe. "Can we pressurize the room so I can take it now?"

"We'll see."

Turning Red Frame around again, Lowe dragged the doors closed and searched for an access panel. Found one. Entered the command to pressurize the room. It took several minutes for the half-stale air to fill the room to survivable levels and when it was finally safe to go out, the air tasted foul. Kisato didn't care. Once she floated over to the DINN-Astray hybrid and sitting in the cockpit with the hatch closed, the Suit's cooling system was already filtering the air while the motion systems booted up. Very soon she could move about.

"_I take it you don't need any help with the OS."_ Lowe joked.

"None at all." Kisato replied. "This thing was already completely programmed for use by a natural." The MS moved like an extension of her own body, smoothly and with grace, unlike the clunky BUCUE and chimeras she had piloted in the past. "I think Storm likes me." She murmured to herself.

"_What was that?" _Lowe asked.

"It's called the ADH-P01 Storm. I just thought it took to me like a duck takes to water."

"_Looks like it from out here too." _Lowe said _"Now let's go. There's another treasure trove in here somewhere. You can play with your new toy later."_

"Uh-huh." Storm walked forward and followed Red Frame out of the room.

* * *

Minutes passed and the Mobile Suits came to a fork in the corridor. Storm took the branching hall while Red Frame continued on forward.

About two minutes passed since Kisato and Lowe split up. More and more locked bulkhead doors passed out of Kisato's view as Storm drifted through the corridor, Kisato taking careful note of her MS's energy levels and not really noticing her surroundings. She only looked up, surprised, when her monitors all went dark.

"Huh?" _They're not offline. The outside's just pitch dark. _Kisato thought as she turned on the small floodlights in Storm's optics. The piercing beams split the inky darkness so Kisato could see she was in an empty warehouse or hanger. Or at least, almost empty. The optic-lights illuminated a new Mobile Suit, just floating on its back, at least ten feet off the floor, like a corpse. With its almost entirely black body armour, golden chest and lower face visor and the huge charcoal-black wings stretching up from its back, the bipedal robot exuded power. But despite its impressively advanced build, Kisato's eyes were drawn to its optic-band, glowing purple. The MS slowly turned its head towards her and turned over its body so that it was floating on its front. Kisato tried to open up a radio channel back to the Lesseps, but her hands were stuck to her control grips, paralysed out of fear. The black Mobile Suit drifted closer and closer to the Storm. Only when they were about 20 feet apart did it stop drifting. Kisato's left monitor started beeping at her with a message showing onscreen: **"Communications hack detected. Source located." **

The radar screen below her central monitor blinked to life and a single dot appeared near the centre of the screen, almost touching the rotation point of the needle sweeping around it. Despite the horror she felt about the alien Mobile Suit Kisato quickly drew a conclusion: if her Mobile Suit was at the dead centre of the radar screen, then the communications hack was coming from the Mobile Suit right in front of her!

"**Communications hack completed. Incoming transmission."**

An inhuman voice penetrated the silence, coming over the radio speakers: _"Help…me."_

Then Kisato screamed.


End file.
